Cascadia distillery

Potter or Cascadia Distillery is in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Cascadia is located on the premises of the famous Granville Islands Brewery.

Disambiguation

Not to be confused with the Cascadia Artesian Distillery south of the border in Montana, or the Cadee Distillery in Bend, Oregon ‘Cascadia Rye Whiskey’ Cascadia is a Canadian distillery. Cascadia is also known as “Potter’s Distillery” after the Potter family which founded it, most likely to overcome this branding confusion as the other distilleries are all within a few hundred miles.

Nearby the Distillery

With a population of around 120,000, Kelowna is the largest city on Lake Okanagan in British Columbia. It was first settled by missionaries in 1859. For Canada, the Okanagan has a very mild climate with many hours of sunshine, so to speak, Canada’s Lake Constance.

The name Kelowna is derived from the Native American word for grizzly bear, which is strange because there are brown bears in the woods around but no grizzlies.

Recommendations

The Cascadia distillery produces very little whisky, making it difficult to get hold of a bottle of Cascadia/Potter’s. Botllings released include

• Canadian Corn 10 year old Rye
• Century Reserve 13 year old Rye
  _ Century Reserve 15 year old Rye
  _ Century Reserve 21 year old Rye
  _ Potter’s Old Special Rye
  _ Royal Canadian Whisky

History

Ernie Potter founded the Potter’s Distillery in Langley in 1958. At the time the Disley only produced liqueurs, but quickly expanded into spirits. In 1962, Captain Harold John Cameron Terry (Captain Terry) an Australian seaman – acquired Potter’s Distillers. He took the company public in 1967 and remained CEO for 20 years. In 1990, production was moved from Langley to Kelowna, British Columbia.

In 1995 the name Potter was changed to Cascadia Brands Inc. In 2005, Highwood Distillers bought the Spirits Division of Cascadia Brands along with Potter’s Distillery. Highwood Distillers Ltd is one of the few family owned distilleries in Canada and they expanded the portfolio with over a dozen new brands in a variety of directions in the alcohol industry.

The distillery was all but shut down in 2006, Cascadia only produces for one week a year in order to keep the distillery license. Despite this Highwood Distillers describes the distillery as active.

Cascadia factsheet

Can I tour Cascadia?

No, unfortunately Cascadia distillery is not open to the public for tours